I also think that part of the resistance to calling Covid transmission "airborne" has to do with containing mass hysteria. Droplets are "things," matter we can wipe away, dodge like bullets in The Matrix. A virus being airborne instills an even greater level of fear then is already apparent, because "airborne" takes the control out of it. "How can we clean the air?" Air isn't a "thing." Even the arguments for the airborne theory (which I'm partial to believe) are basically trying to make manageable a concept that seems impossible to manage--the cleaning of the air, the idea that airborne does not necessarily mean "out of our control."